Excess Baggage Fees?

So I am just going to jump right in six months later with an opinion. Well, it's kind of a half formulated opinion in any case.

Recently, soldiers returning home from Afghanistan were upset when Delta charged them excess baggage fees. They created a YouTube video to make their case.

Here is the rest of the story - even though Delta charges most customers for each bag, these service members were allowed to check 3 for free. They were charged only for the 4th one. Now, the airline industry is in trouble and fuel prices are at an almost all time high. I don't see why it is such a crime for Delta to try to recoup some of their charges. Also, these soldiers would have been paid back for these fees and when we read something along the lines of a bottle of water costing 10,000$ by the time it gets to a soldier, I don't really find myself wanting to demonize Delta.

Also, if these soldiers were to send their items home, nobody would be clamoring that the Postal Service, UPS or Fedex should allow them to ship these items for free.

Their final argument was that it caused an immediate hardship for some. Well, the travel documentations for official military travel here: http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/Docs/perdiem/JFTR(Ch1-10).pdf
state that an AO can pay excess baggage fees and be reimbursed. Someone in their unit would have had a government charge card and could have been reimbursed for this.

I guess I am just thinking that there is always more than one side to a story.